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not yet out of the gun-shot of the devil: you have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin: Let the kingdom be always before you, and believe stedfastly concerning things that are invisible: let nothing that is on this side the other world get within you: and, above all, look well to your own hearts and to the lusts thereof; for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: set your faces like a flint; you have all power in heaven and earth on your side."

Then Christian thanked him for his exhortation; but told him withal, that they would have him speak farther to them for their help the rest of the way; and the rather, for that they well knew that he was a prophet, and could tell them of things that might happen unto them, and how they might resist and overcome them. To which request, Faithful also consented. So Evangelist began as followeth:

"My sons, you have heard in the words of the truth of the Gospel, that you must, through many tribulations, enter into the kingdom of heaven:' and again, that in every city, bonds and afflictions abide you:' and therefore you cannot expect that you should go long on your pilgrimage without them, in some sort or other. You have found something of the truth of these testimonies upon you already; and more will immediately follow: for now, as you see, you are almost out of this wilderness; and therefore you will soon come into a town that you will by and by see before you; and in that town you will be hard beset with enemies, who will strain hard but they will kill you: and be you sure that one or both of you must seal the testimony which you hold, with blood: but be you faithful unto death, and the king will give you a crown of life.* He that shall die there, although his death will be unnatural, and his pains perhaps great; he will yet have the better of his fellow: not only because he will be arrived at the Celestial City soonest, but because he will escape many miseries that the other will meet with in the rest of his journey. But when you are come to the town, and shall find fulfilled what I have here related, then remember your friend, and quit yourselves like men, and commit the keeping of your souls to your God in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them; and the name of the town is Vanity: and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity-Fair; it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity-Fair, because the

Rev. ii. 10.

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town where it is kept is lighter than Vanity!* and also,
because all, that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is
Vanity. As is the saying of the wise, 'All that cometh is
vanity.' (This Fair is no new-erected business, but a thing
of ancient standing: I will show you the original of it.-
Almost five thousand years agone, there were Pilgrims
walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons
are; and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their com-
panions, perceiving by the path that the Pilgrims made,
that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity,
they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair, wherein should
be sold all sorts of vanity; and that it should last all the
year long; therefore at this Fair, are all such merchandises
sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments
titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of
all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, and
masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold
pearls, precious stones, and what not?-And moreover, at
this Fair there are at all times to be seen, jugglings, cheats
games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of
every kind. Here are to be seen too (and that for noth-
ing,) thefts, murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and that
of a blood-red color.-And as in other fairs of less moment,
there are several rows and streets under their proper
names, where such and such wares are vended; so here
likewise, you have the propere the wares of this Fair are
places, rows, streets, (viz.
countries and kingdoms,)
soonest to be found. Here is the Britain-Row, the French-
Row, the Italian-Row, the Spanish-Row, the German-Row;
where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in
other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief of all the
fair, so the ware of Rome and her merchandise is greatly
promoted in this Fair: (only, our English nation, with
some others, have taken a dislike thereat.)

Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through the town where this lusty Fair is kept; and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, must needs go out of the world. The Prince of Princes himself, when here, went through this town to his own country, and that upon a fair-day too: yea, and as I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this Fair, that invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the Fair, would he but have done him reverence as he went through the town: yea, because he was such a person of honor, Beelzebub had him from street to street, and show+1 Cor. v. 10.

Psalm lxii. 9.

† Eccles. chap. xii. 11. 17.

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ed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that he might, if possible, allure that Blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities: but He had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the town, without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities. This Fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair.

Now these Pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through the Fair. Well, so they did: but behold, even as they entered into the Fair, all the people in the Fair were moved, and the town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them; and that for several reasons: For,

First; The Pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that Fair. The people therefore of the Fair made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools; some, they were bedlams; and some, they were outlandish men.

Secondly; And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech: for few could understand what they said; they naturally spoke the language of Canaan:* but they that kept the Fair were the men of this world: So that, from one end of the Fair to the other, they seemed barbarians to each other.

Thirdly; But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers, was that these Pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, ' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; '† and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic were in heaven.

Fourthly, One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to say unto them, "What will ye buy?' But they, looking gravely upon him, said, "We buy the truth." At that, there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them.

At last, things came to an hubbub, and great stir in the Fair; insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the great one of the Fair; who quickly came down and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take those men into an examination, about whom

* 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.

† Psalm cxix. 37.

In the 23d chapter of the Book of Proverbs, at the 23d verse, the Wise Man says: "Buy the truth, and sell it not:" that is, (says pious John Diodati,) "gain it with labor, study, and expense; renouncing all other delights and ease; and never dispossess thyself of it."

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the Fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them, asked them, 'Whence they came, whither they went, and what they did there in such an unusual garb?" The men told them, "that they were Pilgrims and strangers in the world; and that they were going to their own country, which was heavenly Jerusalem and that they had given no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them and to stop them in their journey; except it was for that, when one asked them what they would buy,' they said, "they would buy the truth."

But they that were appointed to examine them, did not believe them to be any other than bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a confusion in the Fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt; and then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men in the Fair.

There therefore they lay for some time, and were made the object of any man's sport, or malice, or revenge; the great one of the Fair laughing still at all that befell them. But the men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; and giving good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done; some men in the Fair, that were more observing and less prejudiced than the rest, began to check and blame the baser sort for their continual abuses done by them to the men. They therefore in angry manner let fly at them again, counting them as bad as the men in the cage; and telling them, that they seemed confederates, and should be made partakers of their misfortunes.' The others replied, "That for aught they could see, the men were quiet and sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there were many that traded in their Fair, that were more worthy to be put into the cage, yea, and pillory too, than were the men that they had abused.

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Thus, after diverse words had passed on both sides, (the men behaving themselves all the while very wisely and soberly before them,) they fell to some blows among themselves, and did harm one to another. Then were these two poor men brought before their examiners again, and there charged of being guilty of the late hubbub that had been in the Fair. So they beat them pitifully; and hanged irons upon them, and led them in chains up and down the Fair, for an example and terror to others, lest any should speak in their behalf or join themselves unto them.

*Heb. xi. 13. 16.

But Christian and Faithful behaved themselves yet more wisely, and received the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them, with so much meekness and patience, that it won to their side (though but few in comparison with the rest) several of the men in the Fair. This put the other party yet into greater rage; insomuch, that they concluded the death of these two men. Wherefore they threatened, that neither cage nor irons should serve their turns; but that they should die for the abuse they had done, and for deluding the men of the Fair.

Then were they remanded to the cage again, until further order should be taken with them. So they put them in, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Here therefore they called again to mind what they had heard from their faithful friend Evangelist; and were the more confirmed in their ways and sufferings by what he told them would happen to them. They also now comforted each other, that whose lot it was to suffer, even he should have the best on it: therefore each man secretly wished that he might have that preferment: but committing themselves to the all-wise disposal of Him that ruleth all things, with much content they abode in the condition in which they were, until they should be otherwise disposed of.

Then, a convenient time being appointed, they brought them forth to their trial, in order to their condemnation. When the time was come, they were brought before their enemies, and arraigned. The judge's name was lord Hategood: their indictment was one and the same in substance, though somewhat varying in form; the contents whereof were these:

"That they were enemies to, and disturbers of, their trade: that they had made commotions and divisions in the town, and had won a party to their own most dangerous opinions, in contempt of the law of their prince."

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Then Faithful began to answer, That he had only set himself against that which had set itself against Him that is higher than the highest. And, (said he) as for disturbance, I make none, being myself a man of peace: the parties that were won to us, were won by beholding our truth and innocence; and they are only turned from the worse to the better. And as to the king you talk of, since he is Beelzebub, the enemy of our Lord, I defy him and all his angels.' Then proclamation was made, "That they that had aught to say for their lord the king against the prisoner at the bar, should forthwith appear, and give in their evidence." So there came in three witnesses, to wit, Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. They were then asked, If they knew the

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